Moon Prophet

Moon Prophet

The  moon is a white hand on fire,

a skull's sign in the water, candled

on the drowning of night.

At the crossroads, the black dog howls;

six pups suckle and snarl on her scarlet milk.

The wind tastes of dangerous words:

war and righteousness, delicious with chocolate

patriotism.

The moon is burning, and still she knows

the time's come again for poor men to die.

~February 2017 

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Kerry's Moon  

Image: Shadow With Pelvis And Moon, 1943, © Georgia O'Keefe

Fair use via wikiart.org

The Dead Tongues

 The Dead Tongues

Alive in a dead language
we once met,

shades of a time displaced

reeling together, blind face

to face of sweet lies,

bilingual brocade

illuminations our brand,

blacked out at dawn 

when wishes fade; 

only sunsets blaze on

in fantasyland.

It's a dry coupling

mind to mind, lust

lubricated by lyrics,

lips rubbed raw by rhyme;

lovers' knots 

in the flesh

lovers' blood

in the mines

lovers' cries

in the fade, hungry

as gulls on the tide.

A fine fate for bards

to empty this chalice

abysmally shimmered,

diseased by a fool's bite,

irrationally filled

as it drains through the sockets:

skull of a thought 

soul of a heart

heart of a will

alive in a dead language

where skin shifts like sand,

where once I spoke whirlwinds

to rest in your hand.

~February 2017

Optional Musical Accompaniment

Image: Jörmungandr "(aka: the Midgard Serpent, son of Loki, and nemesis of Thor) knot piece..late 2014. The Old Norse text is a binding spell...translated using the website The Vikings of Bjornstaad. It says: "Mighty Jörmungandr, terrible serpent beneath the sea, beast that encircles Midgard, I bind thee. In no way will your rage become my own, so thus I vow until at last I rest." Pencil and Micron on white paper. Copyright: -Jenks" source

Premonition

Premonition

The swagger-boys

came at nine

to set back time;

forgot the tics.

They shaved my head

with Occam's razor;

forgot the brain

burned down my house

forgot the windows

confiscated bullets

forgot the gun.

At last they showed the knife

and took my legs;

forgot the heartbeat

that let me crawl away

on love alone.

~February 2017

" [Hitler] has grasped the falsity of the hedonistic attitude to life. Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all 'progressive' thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security, and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. ..All three of the great dictators have enhanced their power by imposing intolerable burdens on their peoples. Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them 'I offer you struggle, danger and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet."  

 ~George Orwell, from a review of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, New English Weekly (21 March 1940) via wikiquote

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[Plus~ 1984 ]

Image: Premonition of Civil War, 1936 © Salvador Dali

The Spider Captain

The Spider Captain

An old stuffed dog

and a long legged spider

a bed like a boat

and a web in the corner

a neon nightlight

from the downstairs sign

stiff faded curtains with red designs

to cover the moon;

too many children, not enough rooms.

A place on the couch

that hides a bed

a long legged spider

to cover your head

to rock you to sleep

while the bed-boat sails where

there's a whole new place

you didn't know was there

with 

a purple bracelet and knots in your hair

for Mother to comb out

and make you cry.

On his way to work,

the spider kisses her goodbye.

~February 2017

Looking beyond the obvious

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Image: The Big Spider's Diamonds,  by Edmond Dulac

Fair use via wikiart.org